Eco-Roundup: The DAPL private security company TigerSwan has rebranded as Hawkeye. Here's why that's hilarious.
Every month, I assemble a round-up of stories I’m following and issues I’m covering, with palate cleansers at the end. Please consider a paid subscription so I can keep up my independent reporting.
Let me just share the thing that made me L O L the hardest this month. TigerSwan, the private security company I’ve been writing about for nearly a decade now — the one hired by the builder of the Dakota Access Pipeline to undermine the Standing Rock movement in 2016 and 2017 — seems to have rebranded. Their web site now redirects to Hawkeye247.com. The logo at the top says “HAWKEYE, evolved from TigerSwan.”
Hawkeye is also the name of the adopted white Mohican in the 1992 blockbuster Last of the Mohicans. Coincidence? I don’t know. TigerSwan hasn’t replied to my questions about it yet.
I'm not sure if you’ve seen Last of the Mohicans — I hadn’t until last night — but it begins with a title card noting that there are only three Mohicans left. And then Daniel Day-Lewis enters the stage. He is Hawkeye, and he is running through the forest, and his long hair is swishing around. At some point he becomes inexplicably shirtless, while his fully clothed Mohican adoptive father and brother run alongside him. Most of the movie, actually, is Daniel Day-Lewis literally running around (see this YouTube montage) and doing heroic things — at one point he even runs through a waterfall.
This movie is obviously very problematic. SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the movie Hawkeye’s brother Uncas dies. The viewer is left that with the impression that Hawkeye, a white guy, might actually be the last Mohican, the only one left to carry forth the lineage. It plays out a strange and long-running white dude fantasy of actually becoming an Indigenous person.
The real Uncas actually didn’t die. His ancestor, Madeline Sayet, pointed out in a piece for High Country News that Last of the Mohicans promotes the genocidal myth that Indigenous nations have disappeared. And they haven’t. In fact, they continue to resist colonization and fight for their lands and waters.
Hawkeye is now the flagship brand of a company that is best known for infiltrating and undermining the biggest Indigenous uprising in the U.S. in a half century.
Many of you know that I am on a now nearly decade-long journey of writing about the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline — Energy Transfer — and its myriad efforts to undermine the Indigenous-led Standing Rock movement. The movement on the ground wound down in 2017, but revelations about what these guys were up to back then continue to emerge. A large chunk of my reporting has focused on TigerSwan – the pipeline company’s security contractor, which was founded by an ex commander of the Army special missions unit Delta Force. TigerSwan infiltrated movement spaces, conducted aerial surveillance, did a lot of propaganda, and coordinated with law enforcement, while simultaneously becoming the boogeymen of the movement — a haunting presence that people feared could be listening at any moment. Its contractors at times dressed as water protectors and pretended to be their friends, their brothers in the cause.
Although Energy Transfer has continued to try to undermine the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s efforts to shut down the pipeline, TigerSwan seems to have faded out of the picture for the most part. It appears that any vision of becoming the go-to company for pipeline companies dealing with protests did not come to fruition. Hawkeye seems to primarily be a geolocation based security app. Again, I don’t know that Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye was the company’s true inspiration.
Either way, though, it’s fitting. In the movie Hawkeye is caught in the crossfire of the French and Indian War. He’s aligned with neither the British nor the French nor the Indigenous nations that have taken either side. He acts as a lethal force for truth and justice, fighting on behalf of whatever everyday person is being threatened that day. For Hawkeye, little more than a persistent stare wins the girl. And importantly, Hawkeye is a white man who blends in with Native people.
Whether it was accidental or not, bravo TigerSwan, for choosing this name. I don’t know that I could imagine anything more perfect.
Other stories I’m following:
Hilary Beaumont has a deep dive for Grist and the Guardian into how climate advocates got hacked by a company allegedly working for Exxon Mobil. A court filing indicates that the hacking was ordered by the PR firm DCI Group, which worked for Exxon. (DCI and Exxon deny involvement in the hacking. ) The timing of all this is sort of interesting: 2014 to 2017 — the same time as the Standing Rock protests. At that time, DCI also had a contract with Energy Transfer, that involved PR related to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Energy Transfer at one time paid DCI about $100,000 per month to run a so-called trade organization called Grow America’s Infrastructure Now. If it was DCI behind the hacking, and they were getting reems of emails from climate advocates working on campaigns related to Exxon Mobil, I wonder what they would do if and when they ran into hacked emails related to the Standing Rock movement and their other client. I would also really love to know more about this world of hack-for-hire organizations, like the one from this story, called Dark Basin. Anyway here’s hoping Hilary keeps reporting as this thing moves toward a trial!
“We were basically forced to exhume our loved ones”
Drilled’s Diana Taremwa-Karakire has a disturbing update from the fight against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline in Uganda. A number of Indigenous people in Tanzania say that they were pressured to exhume the graves of their loved ones to make way for the pipeline. The project is 80 percent complete now but opponents are mounting a new legal challenge.
“Indigenous Narratives in an Era of Extremes”
At the Indigenous Media Conference in Portland, Oregon last week, I got to be on a spicy panel facilitated by Tristan Ahtone called “Does Climate Journalism Really Care About the Climate?” (I’m not Indigenous, to be clear. But I write about Indigenous affairs, so it’s good for me to show up.) Tristan’s inspiration came from this very cool series that Media Indigena put together called BFF: Beyond Forests and Floods that’s worth a listen. It features Indigenous storytellers tackling thorny questions related to the climate crisis, such as, “What would it mean for our storytelling were we to approach climate change not so much as a problem, but as a symptom?” (Anyone know any “C” words?) You can hear Tristan and our brilliant co panelist, Samoan journalist Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson, on Part 3.
Palate Cleansers
I cover topics that are heavy and distressing to take in, so I'm ending these posts with things that make me feel grounded: food, nature, community.
Garden Update: Purple Hearts in High Summer
The plants that me feel the most like a good person are the indoor plants that have become their best selves again, now that they’re outside for the summer. More than any, it’s the purple heart plant. In the winter it was anemic and wilty, with a faded greeny pink color. It was nearing the end of its time, I figured, and we would soon say goodbye. But now in the summer heat and sun it is deep purple and fully three dimensional.
Something Delicious: Distractions and Accidents
I threw some old dried chickpeas in a pot, and figured I’d decide what to do with them later. I added an onion and some garlic and even some forgotten garlic scapes from the dark side of the fridge, with water and a glug of olive oil. Mid-sentence on a zoom call, I smelled a bad smell. I dashed into the kitchen and discovered that the water was gone. A charred layer lined the destroyed bottom of the pot. On top was a delightfully crispy and smoky layer of perfectly roasted chickpeas. Something about happy accidents and the mother of invention goes here, but I am still sad about my good pot.
Community Updates: Hard Fought Union Wins
There are two media union contract fights I thought might never end — but now they have! My wonderful friends at ProPublica as well as my wonderful friends at High Country News both finally have a contract. Both include AI protections. If you’re in a union, please remember to buy your friends on your bargaining committees a drink or a treat, because they’ve worked hard for your ass, for no extra pay.
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